BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Just weeks ago, Montreal native Sami Zayn and fellow Quebecer and longtime in-ring combatant Kevin Owens had one of the greatest matches in their 12-year rivalry, this time on the largest stage in wrestling at part of World Wrestling Entertainment’s Battleground.

This weekend, only one of those men will be part of the second-biggest wrestling event of the year as WWE invades New York for SummerSlam.

Owens and another Canadian, the legendary Chris Jericho, will take on Enzo and Cass in tag-team action. Zayn, meanwhile, will sit this one out.

“It stings a little bit,” Zayn said during media interviews in Brooklyn, ahead of Sunday’s show. “I understand it. I poured all of my mental and physical energy into this thing with Kevin and then it was done and I kind of didn’t know where to go next. Then before you know it, SummerSlam is here. Not being figured into this card kind of stings a little, but I understand it. There are just so many blockbuster matches. It’s going to be a great event. I’d love to be on it in some capacity, but whatever.”

That “thing” with Kevin was a five-star match the longtime combatants and friends that took place last month at Battleground. It was the just the latest in a career-full of matches between the two. The two starred for years on wrestling’s independent scene, clawing their way to WWE after a decade of facing each other and creating one the indy scene’s best rivalries. They resumed it in NXT, WWE’s developmental brand, before bringing it to the main roster of WWE.

The Battleground match was significant in many ways, Zayn said of the rivalry.

“Certainly that was the coolest aspect of it is that we have been doing this for years,” Zayn said. “I obviously haven’t talked to him on a friendly sort of level in a long time now, but I know I’m pretty well and I know that it probably means as much to him as it does to me, just from a sentimental place, because even though we kind of hate each other now, there’s still history there. You still cant help but think ‘Well this is the same guy that I tore it up with in front of 20 people in some small town in Quebec and now it’s the same guy that you’re doing the same thing, but on a global scale on WWE pay-per-view, which will live on forever.’ “

In fact, Zayn said that if he never faced Owens again, that match could withstand the test of time as a great example of their great history.

“Let’s say my career, knock on wood, is over tomorrow, or the story of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn is truly over forever, that match will live on forever and it will show people what we’ve been doing for 12-plus years and I think it’s a really good balance of what makes him great in the ring — because he is great in the ring, I can’t discount that — and what makes us special. Here’s the common thing between Kevin and I. We were never chosen guys. We were never guys that you took a look and said ‘OK, these guys are definitely our top stars.’ It’s always been a bit of an unlikely success story and I think we both have something very unique that we bring to the table, which I’ve never full understood. I think it’s a cross between quality wrestling and emotion, storytelling an it’s this sort of hybrid of all of these different elements. It’s not just good wrestling, it’s not just a bunch of cool moves, but it’s not just the story, it’s all of these intangibles all at play at the same time and that’s what’s been remarkable about the 12-year rivalry and it was all encapsulated in that one match at Battleground and in this entire rivalry in the WWE.”

All that said, Zayn said, he doesn’t believe he and Owens have even began to scratch the surface of their rivalry in WWE.

“To be honest, even this rivalry that we’ve had in WWE, I think it’s a chapter in our rivalry,” he said. “I don’t think it’s over forever. If history has taught me one thing, it will happen again eventually. But to be honest, this last six or seven months, all this stuff we fought over happened in the last six, seven months. There’s still 12 years, 13 years of history that hasn’t even really been explained or brought to light. I think once that stuff gets unearthed, the rivalry will reach an even more intense level and maybe a deeper connection with the audience. Hopefully I’l be a bigger star by the time that happens and Kevin will be a bigger star and the fans will just care even more about the rivalry.”

While Zayn appears destined to watch SummerSlam from the sidelines, he admitted he has an eye on the company’s next major pay-per-view, Survivor Series, which for the first time in history will be held in Toronto. It was previously held in Montreal in 1997, producing the infamous Montreal screw job involving Bret Hart, but has not been held north of the border since.

Being on that show is of the utmost importance to Zayn. He doesn’t, however, envision an involvement with Owens in Toronto in November.

“I genuinely think that we needed to be apart from each other and I don’t think it’s time to go back to that,” Zayn said, sounding like someone ready for a new challenge. “I think I need to stay away from him for a while and he needs to stay away from me for a while. But going back to Canada is a huge deal, especially Toronto. Montreal is my home town, I love it to death, but Toronto I think might have to be the best market in Canada. From a numbers perspective it definitely is. The fans are incredible and every time we go there, it sells out, it’s awesome and the fans are incredible. I’m really, really excited.”

It may sound like a slam dunk that Zayn, a Canadian, would be on that card in November, but because both Raw and SmackDown Live will be represented on the card, nothing is a guarantee.

Zayn knows he’ll have to earn his way onto that card, which is exactly what he plans to do.

“It’s going to be a co-branded show. It’s really important to me that I don’t get left off of that one. (A) co-branded show, it’s harder to get on those shows because there are only a handful of matches from each brand — I can’t miss that one. I cannot miss that one.”

Jan Murphy is the news editor at the Kingston Whig-Standard and has written about wrestling for 15 years. He launched Chinlock.com to archive his wrestling stories. You can follow Jan on Twitter at @Jan_Murphy.